In recent years, the Chinese communist regime has been aggressively pushing “dollar diplomacy” in countries participating in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—Beijing’s grand foreign policy project that the Council on Foreign Relations has cautioned might be a Trojan Horse for China-led regional development, military expansion, and Beijing-controlled institutions.
Its “dollar diplomacy” has seen various grants and scholarship systems established for international students from BRI countries to study in China. Internal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents obtained by The Epoch Times have confirmed that the CCP has directed huge sums of money to attracting foreign students, particularly from these countries, to study in China.
According to Chinese state media reports, the CCP spent 3.32 billion yuan ($475 million) in 2018 on various scholarships for more than half a million foreign students to study in China. More than half of those students came from 64 BRI-participating countries.
By contrast, according to data from the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, around 3 million children in China—most from impoverished areas—could not afford to attend school in 2018.
The Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road were ancient China’s famous international trade routes. They crossed Asia and extended to Europe and Africa on both land and sea.
‘Special Silk Road Scholarship’
Local governments in China have been required to set up “Special Silk Road Scholarships” that support Beijing’s BRI policy through educational offerings that are then marketed in countries along the Belt and Road.
According to leaked documents from Gansu Province—one of China’s most poverty-stricken provinces—millions of yuan have been allocated to schools as generous “Special Silk Road Scholarships” for luring foreign students that are considered strategically important for the CCP as it works to expand its global influence. The “Special Silk Road Scholarships” are just one of many scholarships supported by the CCP for such purposes.
An internal local government document titled “Gansu Province Silk Road Special Scholarship Management Measures.” (Screenshot) The “Special Silk Road Scholarship” offered to international students includes 12,000 yuan ($1,800) a year for living expenses and 5,000 yuan ($750) a year in tuition aid for graduate students. Undergraduate and vocational students receive 3,000 yuan ($450) a year in tuition aid. The scholarships are more than the 9,600 yuan ($1,390) average annual income that farmers earn in Gansu province. The average annual income in urban areas of the province is 32,300 yuan ($4,680).
The documents also revealed that Northwest Normal University in Gansu hosted as many as 15 foreign students under the award, with seven students from Kyrgyzstan, three from Uzbekistan, and five from Kazakhstan—all BRI participating countries in central Asia that the CCP sees as strategically important.
Another document summarizing the Gansu Province Department of Education’s efforts to promote the BRI revealed that 5.1 million yuan ($770,000) had been allocated in 2020 toward “Special Silk Road Scholarships” for 360 international students from BRI-participating countries.
Lenient Scholarship Criteria
According to an annual report document for “Confucius Institute Scholarship Students at Northwest Normal University,” the Gansu Northwest Normal University was also exceptionally lenient its criteria for awarding its scholarships to foreign students. China’s Confucius Institutes come under the CCP’s Hanban governmental organization, which overseas a broad global propaganda initiative to promote and spread the CCP’s ideology through Chinese language classes that it offers to schools in foreign countries.
According to the documents, one of the criteria for the scholarship is an attendance rate above 70 percent. However, a Sudanese student majoring in Teaching Chinese as Second Language at the university who had not attended any classes this semester was still recommended for a partial scholarship for the second half of 2020.
Screenshot of the Review Report.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the student had returned home to Sudan in January and didn’t return to Northwest Normal University. With no computer or internet at home, she’s missed all this semester’s online teaching. She also couldn’t take the required Chinese Proficiency Test in May.
Sudan was one of the first countries to sign the a BRI agreement with the CCP and has since received a lot of investment.
Gu Qing’er Contributed to the report.
Focus News: China’s ‘Dollar Diplomacy’: Generous Student Scholarships for Countries Participating in Belt and Road